Ranchi, Sept. 5: Jharkhand has missed the bus once again. Asked by the Centre to provide employment to 100,000 people in rural areas, the state has logged a pathetic 5 per cent achievement. In other words, only 5,000 people have been provided with employment, on paper, against the target of one lakh.

What is worse is that employment was to be provided under a central scheme and with central funds. Even more embarrassing is the fact that at the helm of the central organisation entrusted with the task of implementing the scheme is a man from the state itself, Mahesh Sharma, chairman of the central Khadi and Village Industries Commission. The task force constituted to supervise the implementation of the scheme in Chhotanagpur and Santhal Parganas had former chief minister Babulal Marandi heading it. But the net result has been zilch.

The failure of the MPs, MLAs and the state government to ensure the implementation of the scheme has deprived 95,000 rural households of job opportunities, despite the fact that central funds were available all along.

It all started with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee declaring from the ramparts of Red Fort in 1998 that one crore rural people would be provided employment through KVIC in five years. With unified Bihar accounting for 10 per cent of the country’s population, the state’s share should have come to 10 lakhs and by population standards, Jharkhand’s share should have come to around 3 lakhs.

But inexplicably, the share of Chhotanagpur and Santhal Parganas was pegged at just 1 lakh. The achievement after 5 years? Just 5,000. The five-year scheme draws to a close this year.

KVIC regional director S.S. Sil admitted that only 710 KVIC units had been established in Jharkhand in four years and a quarter. While the target this year is a more ambitious 671 units, the indications are far from encouraging. In the first four months of the financial year, only 31 units have come up.

Significantly, Jharkhand has been consuming two-and-a-half times more of Khadi products than what it produces. This is borne out by the fact that while the state produced khadi products worth Rs 3.7 crore in 2002-03, KVIC outlets actually sold products worth Rs 10.2 crore in the same year.

Explaining this gap between production and sale figures, Sil said many products were brought from other states, like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

“KVIC is a national body and artisans in other states benefited because of increase in sales of khadi products here.”